A Study on Mechanical Behaviour of Surface Modified Rice Husk/Polypropylene Composite Using Sodium Hydroxide

Abstract

There are many studies has been done on the natural fibers of cellulose contents as a reinforcing material. Yet, the main challenge in the research of natural fiber is the poor compatibility. In this study, the surface modification techniques were performed on granular size rice husk (RH) such as untreated, boiled and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treated reinforced polypropylene (PP) was consolidated to improve the mechanical properties. An internal mixer machine is set for four different composites compositions and the samples produced by hot press machine. The specimens were analyzed by different techniques such as hardness test, impact test, tensile test and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). This study shown that, the presence of NaOH indicates higher young modulus and hardness test value compared to boiled treated and untreated RH. While for the impact strength and tensile strength value shows untreated, boiled treated and NaOH treated PP/RH composite decreased when fiber loading increased. The morphological analysis was conducted to determine the effects of natural fiber bonding between the matrix materials after boiling and NaOH treatments for mechanical testing broken specimens.

A Study on Mechanical Behaviour of Surface Modified Rice Husk/Polypropylene Composite Using Sodium Hydroxide

“…It happened because when filler loading increase the effective matrix cross section reduction and stress concentration increase. It is similar finding [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21] where the less percentage of matrix cannot reinforced well with natural fiber and it make facture if stress is applied and easy to slip off. Although the boiled & NaOH treated rice husk strength decreased when the percentage of rice husk composite increase but it is still improve when compared with untreated or boiled rice husk.…”

“…The utilization of rice husk ash as a reinforcement of a polymeric material is provided several advantages, such as durability properties and improved strength, environmental benefits related to the disposal of waste materials and reduced materials costs, and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions [13]- [16]. The main issue of the using natural fiber composite is the fiber matrix adhesion.…”